The field of the present disclosure relates generally to network communications, and more specifically, resolving address conflicts within a network using isolated virtual work zones.
Data communication networks enable data transmission between various computing devices. The data communication networks may include public networks (e.g., the internet) and private networks (e.g., company networks and personal networks). Each computing device connected to a network is assigned an address to enable other devices within the network to identify and communicate with the computing device. The address may include, for example, an internet protocol (IP) address. In at least some known systems, IP addresses are assigned to computing devices within a network without consideration of the addresses assigned in other networks, and thus at least some IP addresses in two different networks may overlap.
In some embodiments, several data communication networks may be merged together to form a global network. For example, a business entity may have different networks for different locations of the business entity. Merging the different networks into a global network enables computing devices between the two networks to communicate. However, the merged networks may include computing devices having overlapping IP addresses, otherwise known as an address conflict. When transmitting data packets to computing devices having an address conflict, the data packet may be delivered to the incorrect recipient, the data packet may be corrupted during transmittal, and/or the data packet may not be transmitted at all. In some embodiments, to resolve any address conflicts between networks, IP addresses may be reassigned across the global network such that each device within the network has a unique address. However, network devices, scripts, applications, and processes that rely upon the addresses to transmit and receive data may not be configured to automatically update to use the addresses from the reassignment. For example, a script may include a static or hard-coded IP address for a particular computing device within its instructions. To update the script, a user must manually update the script with the new address of the computing device. This process may be time-consuming and affect the performance of a service associated with the software being updated, especially if hundreds or even thousands of network devices, scripts, applications, processes, and the like may need to be checked and adjusted based on the reassigned addresses.